As someone who is at home in the world of alternative/natural healing modalities, but in community with people who have never set foot in a yoga studio, I want to bridge the gap and make my wellness practices feel accessible to everyone. I repeatedly hear my community saying they hold back from trying energetic practices because of all “woo-woo” language surrounding things like yoga, reiki and breathwork. In addition, the mystery of the unknown can be a barrier to exploration, so I set out to run a controlled experiment where the “woo woo” took a back seat to the details of my clinical approach and my subject’s personal results.

Because I was recently certified as a breathwork facilitator and this practice is unfamiliar to many people, I decided to take the mystery out of things by sharing an immersive, in-person testimonial. I selected a volunteer to conduct 6 weeks of sessions and share unfiltered feedback. This volunteer, like many of my community members, was new to breathwork, but willing to explore. This is the catalogue of our experience.

The Plan:

Over 6 weeks, we will be tracking the impact of weekly breathwork on different aspects of the volunteer’s life. These will include metrics for physical, emotional and mental wellbeing. Because of the pandemic, and to make my services as safe/accessible as possible, these sessions will be conducted remotely over Zoom video call.

Basics on Breathwork:

Breathwork is a conscious breathing practice that supports somatic healing. i.e. it uses a physical breathing pattern to focus on healing within the physical body, or soma, separate from the mind or spirit. This active meditation has been used worldwide for healing in many indigenous cultures. As a facilitator, I am holding energetic space for the subject and their breath, offering support as needed through guided meditation and physical observation.

The Sessions:

Weekly 90-minute sessions will be structured in the same way every time: We will recap the last 7 days with an intake form of repeatable metrics like stress, physical pain, relationships/communication, sleep quality etc. rated 0-10. Before we breathe, we will set an intention for the session, and I’ll initiate a short grounding meditation. Music will play while the volunteer engages the active breathing pattern for approx 30 mins. then a rest period will return them to natural breathing and we’ll recap what we both experienced during the session.

Who is my volunteer

Anonymizing the data as much as possible, I still want you to have an idea of the volunteer’s lifestyle and personality. Mid-30s, single and relatively physically/mentally “healthy,” the volunteer has had very little experience with breathwork but comes with an open mind. They live in a big city, work in the gig economy as a creative/caregiver, and volunteer regularly as part of an active mutual aid community. Navigating diagnosed PTSD/anxiety, pandemic isolation, self employment, and the wild world of millennial dating, main stressors/points of focus for this practice include emotional loneliness, anxiety responses, and physical exhaustion/burnout.

Week one/ the baseline

We started this journey the week of Nov 26, 2021. Both of us are based in the U.S. and they have received reiki from me before, but their breathwork practice is exclusive to this experiment.
Although she doesn’t celebrate most national holidays, it’s hard to escape the effects of the season.

Her stress levels were at a 7 because the holiday break was creating more responsibility at her job. Instead on being charge of 1 child all day, there was 3 that week.

The extra responsibility and the time change effected her health. She was exhausted, her body was sore and in pain. Mentally she was feeling foggy and having a hard time focusing from the extra stress at work.

Being so tired left very little room for creativity. She did very little creative writing in her journal but tried to bring a little more fun into the art projects she did with the kids.

On a positive note she was sleeping amazingly, 10 out of 10. Just having restful and deep sleeps every night.

She was communicating well in her relationships. Although there was some conflict, it still was healthy and enforced her boundaries. She was focused on keeping her circle small and her social life calm.

A personal goal

We also talk about a personal goal for the next 6 weeks. Her personal goal was to make breathwork/ breathing apart of her self care tool box. To look for a deeper connection and awareness of her breath. She planned to use breathwork to help rewrite harmful narratives that come up when she is anxious.

Since this is more of a long term goal, we narrowed it down to connecting to her breath more often when she feels anxious.

Over the next 6 weeks we tracked these different areas of her life. It was amazing to see each session bring something different to the surface. There was laughter, tears and even epiphanies.

This experience was mutually beneficial and I’m excited to share the results on my blog over the next few weeks.

Learn more about breathwork at kaylaarthur.com/breathwork or first hand by booking an appointment here

Can breathwork change your life?